4.30.2012

racist chants at emory university volleyball game

Got word of this racist incident that went down last week at Emory University...

On Monday, two teams -- Beta Theta Pi and a team made up of mostly Asian American students -- were competing at a men's intramural volleyball championship. No big deal... until Beta's fans decided to be a bunch of dumbasses.

So your all-white team is playing against a bunch of Asians kids, who also happen to have a bunch of Asians cheering them on. So what's the perfect, racially-charged chant to put your opponents in their place? "USA! USA! USA!"

Not kidding. This actually happened. Here's an editorial written by Emory students Emily Wang, Joanne Kim, Gloria Kang and Daniel Cho, published in the school paper: Beta's Cheers Are Offensive.

On Monday, April 24, the men’s intramural volleyball championship took place at the Woodruff P.E. Center between Beta Theta Pi and a team made up of predominantly Asian-American students. Each team had a number of fans cheering them on. In the middle of the second game, we heard the Beta fans cheering something. The meaning was not imminently clear for the first few seconds, but the racially-charged cheer soon struck us like a bolt of unwelcome, unrelenting lightning that rooted us to where we stood in shock.

“USA! USA! USA!” cheered the Beta fans with their fists pumping in the air as they chanted again and again. Suddenly, our yellow skin, black hair and Asian heritage became the target of this subtle, yet jarring taunt. With each declaration, we felt more alienated. Suddenly, we weren’t Americans, born and raised, but “Others” who didn’t belong.

It is difficult to explain the emotions that wash over you when you are subjected to such cruel and inconsiderate actions. What should you do? Do you yell back? Do you tell the intramural coordinator who is watching the game, listening to the same chant you are? Do you just take it and brush it off as a joke?

Big props to the Asian American students for the chant they returned back to them fools: "USA! USA!" You're damn right. Steps have been taken to raise the issue with school and administration representatives from the Beta fraternity. The Asian American students are not taking this sitting down.